Spain’s Arantxa breezes into quarter-finals

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Sydney: Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, the 1996 silver medallist, became the first player through to the quarter-finals of the Olympic tennis tournament when she breezed by Fabiola Zuluaga of Colombia on Friday 6-2, 6-0.

The fifth-seeded Spaniard took only 51 minutes to dismiss Zuluaga and set up an expected meeting with Venus Williams in the last eight. "I played very, very well today," said the 28-year-old Sanchez Vicario. "I came to the net well and I served well the whole game."

The Spaniard said she was looking forward to another clash with the second-seeded Williams, who is on a 28-match winning streak. "Beating Williams is very difficult but those are the kind of matches we are waiting for, playing against the best," said Sanchez Vicario, a former US Open and triple French Open champion.

Men's doubles provided an early upset on Friday as the second-seeded US pair of Alex O'Brien and Jared Palmer fell 6-2, 6-4 in the second round to Mark Knowles and Mark Merklein of the Bahamas.

"They were loose and swinging away and got on us early," said Palmer about the fast start that put the Bahamans ahead 4-0 in the opening set. "That set the tone of the match and we were always reacting to what they were doing."

O'Brien was devastated by the defeat, which left the US team with only 77th ranked Jeff Tarango remaining in men's competition. "I don't think I've felt worse in my entire career," said O'Brien, who was ranked number one in doubles earlier this year, as was Palmer. "I might break every one of my rackets in the parking lot and throw them in the river."

Advancing on the men's singles side were Roger Federer of Switzerland, a 6-4, 7-6 (7-5) winner against Karol Kucera of Slovakia, and Sweden's Mikael Tillstrom, who eliminated Canadian Sebastien Lareau 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 in second-round matches. Federer and Tillstrom will meet in the third round.



(c) Reuters Limited.